Commentary: Spring-Ford out to prove naysayers wrong

Pennridge's Kyle Bigam,45, is hit by Spring-Ford defender Andy Lovre-Smith ,34, after a reception during second half action of their playoff contest at Poppy Yoder Field on Saturday November 24,2012. Photo by Mark C Psoras\The Reporter

DOWNINGTOWN — There may not be a soul alive, at least anyone still breathing outside the Royersford, Spring City, Limerick and Upper Providence communities, who isn’t expecting to read Spring-Ford football’s obituary first thing Saturday morning.

No one outside the immediate Spring-Ford football family has given the Rams any hope at all in surviving tonight’s District 1-Class AAAA final against Coatesville at Downingtown West High School.

Spring-Ford wasn’t exactly everyone’s choice when the postseason kicked off against Garnet Valley, hardly anyone’s choice the following week at Ridley, and few fans’ choice last Saturday at Pennridge.”

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“Have we been favored by anyone in these playoffs?” Brubaker asked following a midweek practice. “Our staff has all been in situations where the consensus was that we had no chance (to win). We love and embrace that.”

“Coaching is easy when you have the ability to just line up and be better than the other team. We enjoy the film breakdown, the planning, the preparation, and the competition of games where no one gives us a chance. That’s the chess match.”

A year ago, or 55 weeks ago to be precise, Coatesville made all the right moves and had Spring-Ford in check not long after the opening kickoff. There isn’t a single player on the Rams’ roster, not even the sophomores who weren’t around for it, who hasn’t been reminded one way or another of the 60-28 carnage time and time and time again.

Getting into the postseason for the very first time a year ago was good, real good. Seeing it end after just one week wasn’t good enough, not nearly good enough.

The memories are still fresh in the Rams’ collective football mind. And sometimes, not always, memories can be motivational.

Perhaps that alone is what has driven them this season, what enabled them to work through the embarrassing and disheartening 26-0 loss to Pottsgrove in Week Five — a game everyone had circled on their football calendar as the Pioneer Athletic Conference Game of the Year.

Perhaps it is what gave them new life, because except for Thanksgiving eve’s fiasco — the use of non-varsity starters in a 49-0 mismatch against very good Phoenixville — they haven’t lost since.

A team some thought may have been on life-support following the setback to Pottsgrove, instead huffed and puffed and blew the doors in of five other PAC-10 rivals, including a very good Perkiomen Valley in Week 10. It was a team that sure had enough offensive, defensive and special team get-up-and-go in it to leave Garnet Valley, Ridley and Pennridge huffing and puffing.

“Obviously our players have to have the confidence in the plan and execute the plan for us to be successful,” Brubaker said. “I think our players sense the excitement, desire and competition in our coaching staff. I think they believe in us. I know we definitely believe in them.”

The confidence was evident from start to finish against No. 10 seed Garnet Valley — the program’s first postseason win and the PAC-10’s first in the AAAA bracket. The confidence was evident in the waning moments of the thriller down at No. 2 seed Ridley — a program that already owned two district titles and nearly as many postseason wins as Spring-Ford’s lump sum of non-league wins over the past 10 years. And the confidence, not to mention the execution, was evident throughout the win over No. 3 seed Pennridge — coming back from an early deficit, then putting an exclamation point on it with a game-ending drive that erased the final seven and a half minutes off the clock and denied the hosts any miracle comeback.

Now they have 12 wins — more than any team before them since Spring-Ford marched its first team out onto the former Washington Street Field in 1955.

Now they find themselves lining up for a very first District 1 title.

“It’s about being healthy, about peaking at the right time,” Brubaker said. “It’s about the desire of the players to continue playing and genuinely caring about the program and each other.

“Our kids want to play, they care, and they’ve embraced the underdog role. I don’t think we’ve been favored by a lot of people in any of our three playoff games, and that’s obviously the case (tonight). So be it. I just know our kids will be ready.”

That’s ready to play … ready to prove a whole lot more people wrong.

And ready, they hope, to breath at least one more week of life into one very lively season.